"Does it mean that the spiritual energy has a passive effect on the body? To strengthen it?"

"Not exactly. The spiritual energy doesn't strengthen the body but contribute to it while it remains unused. However, as the energy is being consummed, the strength diminishes along with it. Understanding this and putting it in practice is one of the key things that determines strong and weak in the early stages of spiritual accumulation so make sure to work on it"

"...Ok. But why isn't the spiritual energy produced by the core sent into the soul sea?"

"If it was sent into the soul sea, could you use it? The soul sea is a peculiar container. It can absorb and trap spiritual energy for a time. Have you tried to will the spiritual energy to leave your seal sea before? Probably not since you have asked...It is impossible. Once in, it will only be able to dissipate or be absorbed. The soul sea is a spiritual energy trap in a way"

"Then, why did you compare the soul sea as a body before? The heart pumps the blood in the body but the core doesn't send the energy into the soul sea"

"Because they both have a role to 'contain', 'absorb' and 'protect'. They contain spiritual energy and blood with many other things. They absorb the spiritual energy and the nutrients. They protect their hearts. Your soul sea, as a matter of fact, isn't just there to contain your core, help you mold it and improve it. It is also a way to defend it. When you reach the 30th stage, if you ever do which I hope, you will learn some ways to directly target an opponent's soul sea or core. Just the same way, you will learn ways to protect your soul sea"

"Like what?"

"The most difficult yet strongest technique is called the shaping of will but it isn't something to concern yourself with right now. Let's focus on the soul sea for now"

Shaping of will...That did sound like something he knew...Right. It did. Because he knew. It was what he used to become able to absorb the spiritual energy. The spears inside his soul sea. It turned out to be a skill to protect his soul sea in nature... Well, there would only be attacks targeting it after he reached the 30th stage so it didn't yet matter much. There was no need to organize a defense against attacks that wouldn't come...Though he planned to go to the sect's libraries if he could and read more about this technique.

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Instead, just as his Master pointed out, it was better to focus on the soul sea for the moment. And so, they kept on chatting about this.

It was only a few hours later that Hae-Hyuk gave a dozen jade slips to Jin and told him: "They each contain a visual technique. Master them all and then come back to report. This will be the first step to learning my secret technique"

Jin nodded and went on to learn them. As he began to work on those, he felt very smug for having worked on Fine Tuning further than required beforehand. Visual techniques implied augmenting the capabilities of one's eyes. Was it easy? Of course not. One needed focus, knowledge, precision and ability. The effort he put in Fine Tuning beforehand was truly showing its worth right off the bat.

Time continued to flow. Once Jin or Min-Su finished to learn a dozen visual techniques, they were given ten new ones to learn. They spent their days mastering visual techniques one after another as they moved from one sect to another still without cultivating further.

Six months went by in the flash after Soo-Hyun returned to the sect. Today marked the half-year anniversary of the border defense war she joined. The one in which she likely lost her first love. She wasn't sure if he was her first love or just the greatest friend she ever had in her young life but she knew one thing: she missed him a lot. She sometimes cried at night, especially the first few months.

Han-Bi and Sang-Min helped her a little during the first month then left her to deal with it. They were Jin's friends and not hers. They had no reasons to accommodate her yet still went out of their ways to help her back then. She was grateful. They did spend a lot of time with her, comforting her, even though they were likely hurt too.

She had not seen them in the past two months but today, here they were. Standing next to her. In the front of a grand group of disciples. It was a memorial. A funeral of sorts. For those who didn't escape Area 27 and died in there. Since Sarhjin won, the Empire and all the forces associated with it, knew that whoever didn't come back was dead. And no forces would spend money to get back the corpses of those. Not even Jin's corpse would receive such honor. Which is why there was nothing but a simple funeral for all of them at once.

Soo-Hyun cried, Han-Bi teared up a little and Sang-Min bawled. They let go of all their emotions and truly mourned the death of their friend. There was a time when Soo-Hyun still believed that he might come back but no longer. The sect had been clear. He was dead. Either died in the Area or outside after being spotted as a citizen of the Empire. It couldn't be helped. She had to face the fact, live with it, and move on.

From this whole war, she lost a lot and earn a lot too. She was now aware of what death was and how close cultivators were of it for example. Of course, if she had known beforehand that this was the kind of thing she would learn, she would have rather remained ignorant.